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Euronews
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
There is no clear intent to commit genocide in Gaza, law expert says
A growing number of top government officials, NGOs and academics in the West are ready to claim that Israel's ongoing military operation in Gaza amounts to genocide. But some law experts have raised alarms about the risks of using the term, which is perceived as "the crime of crimes", without a proper definition or legal proof. They say there is so far no concrete evidence of Israel committing genocide as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, of which Israel is a signatory. 'Israel is committing the war crime of using hunger as a weapon of war, which is prohibited under international law,' said Stefan Talmon, a prominent international law professor at the University of Bonn. 'But there is a difference between war crime and the crime of genocide.' No clear genocide intent so far First coined by the Jewish-Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944, the word 'genocide' is defined under the 1948 Convention as a set of five crimes 'committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.' Those crimes include 'Killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.' The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza started after Hamas-led militants launched a surprise attack on 7 October 2023 in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking hundreds hostage. Fifty hostages are still being held, although fewer than half of them are believed to be alive. Since then, UN agencies have warned that Israel's airstrikes on Gaza, along with a siege of the territory, have resulted in the deaths of more than 60,000 people, the forced displacement of tens of thousands and growing evidence of man-caused mass starvation. In December 2023, South Africa started proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel for alleged violations of the 1948 Convention, arguing that 'acts and omissions by Israel ... are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent ... to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.' A year later, Amnesty International became one of the first international NGOs to conclude in a report that 'there is sufficient evidence to believe that Israel's conduct in Gaza following 7 October 2023 amounts to genocide.' More recently, B'Tselem, a prominent Israeli NGO also stated that Israel's policy in the Gaza Strip 'together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack,' led to the conclusion that 'Israel is taking coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip.' In a separate interview, genocide and Holocaust scholar Omer Bartov told Euronews that he had labelled Israel's military campaign a genocide in May 2024, when the Israeli army decided to flatten Rafah after ordering its residents to evacuate the city in the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, and moving them to Mawasi – a coastal area with almost no shelter. But for an international law expert and barrister like Talmon, there is no sufficient proof of a clear intent to commit genocide in Israel so far, and it will be 'very difficult' for South Africa or any other country to prove that Israel is committing genocide. 'It's not just that you are killing people as such and you deliberately kill someone,' Talmon said. 'You have to kill the person because you want to destroy the group he is a part of, in whole or in part.' 'That does not necessarily mean that you would have to kill the group in whole, or in part,' Talmon continued. 'We have seen convictions of individuals for genocide where just one person has been killed … You don't need 6 million people dead like the Holocaust to have genocide.' The proof is either 'direct evidence,' he said, like a decision of the Israeli security cabinet which would 'spell out that the cabinet wants to basically exterminate the Palestinian people.' But the ICJ can also require indirect evidence by which 'you may basically infer the intention to destroy in whole or in part from a certain pattern of action.' In addition, he said, there must be 'no other inference than can be drawn from the fact than the intention to destroy.' The example of Srebrenica Talmon pointed to the genocide in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica in July 1995, which resulted in the systematic execution of more than 8,000 Bosniaks, mostly men and boys. Despite a number of cases of genocide brought against Bosnian Serb military and political leadership for crimes in different parts of the country, the ICJ ruled that it was committed only in Srebrenica. 'The (Bosnian) Serbs separated women and children from men and started, within a short period of time, to kill (thousands of) men of all ages, from 16 to basically 65 or 75, irrespective of whether these were soldiers or whether these were civilians,' he said. 'Now in that situation, the International Court of Justice said: what other explanation can you give for that mass killing within these kind of two days other than to destroy in whole or in part, the Bosnian Muslims in that area and exterminate them?' 'We haven't had any such situation in the Gaza Strip,' Talmon added. Crime against humanity versus genocide Without indisputable, direct or indirect evidence of the intention to destroy, Israel could be prosecuted on charges of war crimes or crimes against humanity, Talmon said. Under UN rules, the term 'war crimes' refers to violations of international humanitarian law 'committed against civilians or enemy combatants during an international or domestic armed conflict." A crime against humanity refers to a series of crimes 'committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack." 'The Israeli action, of course, could also be explained in many other ways,' Talmon said. 'Beginning from the fight against Hamas to rescuing the hostages, it could be by mere brutality, retaliation, vengeance, ethnic cleansing,' he explained. There is a multitude of other explanations for Israeli actions, so it will be very difficult to say because the Israelis are using excessive force, they are driving Palestinians to the south of the Gaza Strip, they are confining them to very specific areas, they are basically reducing the available food and water and medical supplies to them," Talmon continued. "That may all be explained by other motives.' Despite the absence of clear evidence or compliance with the high standards of genocide, Talmon concluded that such a verdict would carry devastating effects for the Israelis, many of whom are survivors or children of survivors of the Holocaust. 'If you find that Israel is committing genocide or that Germany committed genocide, It's not just the present government that will be seen as a génocidaire,' Talmon said, using the French word for perpetrator of genocide. 'It is the whole people," he stated. "The Israelis become perpetrators … The Germans have become perpetrators.' Founded in 1945, the ICJ has issued genocide verdicts in a handful of cases against individuals, and is yet to rule against any country for genocide. Genocide cases in front of international courts are an arduous endeavour, often taking over a decade to see through until a verdict is reached. Israel has vehemently rejected all allegations of a genocidal campaign in Gaza, in turn stating that its actions are meant to disempower and destroy Hamas. It has also repeatedly accused the militant group of intentionally endangering the lives of Palestinians by using them as human shields, while saying that it has done all in its power to prevent civilian losses.
The Hindu
19-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza?
In January 2024, South Africa initiated proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), alleging that Israel's military campaign in Gaza amounted to genocide. The application was filed just over two months after the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023. Although the court has not yet ruled on the merits of the charge, it has issued a series of binding provisional measures, including repeated directives to ensure the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza. These interim orders reflect the court's preliminary assessment that a 'plausible' risk of genocide exists. In the months since, conditions in Gaza have grown increasingly dire. In March, Israel violated a six-week ceasefire and resumed its assault on the besieged enclave. Entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble, families decimated, and access to food, water, and electricity remains critically limited. As the humanitarian crisis worsens, a global consensus is emerging. Heads of state, senior United Nations officials, and leading international jurists are increasingly characterising Israel's conduct in Gaza as genocidal. Defining genocide The term genocide was coined in 1944 by Polish-Jewish jurist Raphael Lemkin and formally recognised as a crime under international law by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in 1946. In the aftermath of the horrors of the Holocaust, the UNGA unanimously adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) in 1948. The Convention defines genocide as acts committed with 'the intent to destroy, in whole or in substantial part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group'. It is considered the gravest of international crimes, and its prohibition constitutes a non-derogable peremptory norm (jus cogens) of international law. Because of its status as a jus cogens norm, the duty to prevent and punish genocide gives rise to an erga omnes obligation — one owed to the international community as a whole. This means that all states, regardless of their direct involvement in a conflict, are legally bound to act against genocide wherever it occurs. It is on this basis that South Africa, a party that is technically unrelated to the conflict in Gaza, claims standing to bring the case to the ICJ. Proving that genocide has occurred requires establishing two essential elements: the act itself and the intent behind it. The first element, known as actus reus, refers to one or more of five specific acts committed against a protected group. These include killing members of the group; causing them serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting conditions intended to bring about the group's physical destruction; imposing measures to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children to another group. Equally critical is the mens rea, or mental element, which requires not just a general intent to carry out these acts, but a specific intent (dolus specialis) to destroy the group, in whole or in part. This rare intent is what sets genocide apart from other mass atrocities. While other crimes may involve the indiscriminate or deliberate killing of civilians as individuals, genocide is characterised by the targeting of individuals as members of a group, with the aim of annihilating the group's capacity to survive or reconstitute itself as a political, social, or cultural entity. Mounting evidence Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, told the Human Rights Council last year that there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel had crossed the threshold for committing genocide. In her report, she pointed to the systematic destruction not only of residential areas but also of critical infrastructure, including hospitals, universities, mosques, water systems, agricultural zones, and cultural heritage sites, as evidence of a policy aimed at making Palestinian life in Gaza unsustainable. Her assessment has been echoed by prominent rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. The scale of destruction appears to lend further credence to these claims. In June, a UN Commission of Inquiry found that Israeli air strikes, shelling, burning and controlled demolitions had destroyed more than 90% of schools and university buildings across the Gaza Strip. According to local health authorities, over 58,000 people have been killed, including more than 17,000 children. Gaza now reportedly has the highest per capita number of amputee children in the world. As the starvation crisis deepens, civilians have reportedly been shot while waiting in queues for food and essential supplies. In its submission to the ICJ, South Africa accused Israel of 'weaponising international humanitarian law' to shield its actions from accountability. Since the outset of the genocide proceedings, Israel has maintained that its military campaign targets Hamas and not civilians, who it claims are affected only as collateral damage. Ms. Albanese has described this approach as 'humanitarian camouflage,' arguing that Israel has systematically distorted key humanitarian norms, such as those on human shields, collateral damage, safe zones, evacuations, and medical protection, to blur the distinction between civilians and combatants. This strategy, she argues, not only obscures the real human cost of the conflict but also undermines the core tenets of international humanitarian law. Proving genocidal intent Establishing genocidal intent is notoriously difficult, as states rarely articulate such intent overtly. Accordingly, the ICJ has held that intent may be inferred from circumstantial evidence, such as the scale and nature of atrocities, patterns of conduct, and dehumanising rhetoric by state officials. In its submission to the ICJ, South Africa cited several statements by senior Israeli leaders as indicative of genocidal intent. For instance, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that the enemy would 'pay a huge price' and pledged to reduce parts of Gaza 'to rubble.' Other officials have referred to Palestinians as 'human animals' and called for their 'total annihilation.' However, the ICJ's evidentiary standard for proving genocidal intent remains stringent and has come under increasing criticism. In Croatia v. Serbia (2015), the court held that such intent could only be inferred from a pattern of conduct if 'this is the only inference that could be reasonably drawn' from the acts in question. This rigid standard effectively precludes a finding of genocide if any alternative motive appears plausible. In 2023, several states, including Canada, the Netherlands, the U.K., Germany, France, and Denmark, raised concerns over this high bar in a joint declaration filed in the genocide case instituted by Gambia against Myanmar. They cautioned that such a restrictive approach risks making genocide 'near-impossible' to prove. Instead, they proposed a 'balanced approach,' urging courts to weigh all available evidence and discard inferences that are clearly unreasonable. In other words, the presence of other conceivable motives should not automatically negate a finding of genocidal intent. This view is consistent with international criminal jurisprudence. Both the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) have recognised that genocidal intent can coexist with other motives. In Prosecutor v. Goran Jelisić (2001),the ICTY held that 'the existence of a personal motive does not preclude the perpetrator from also having the specific intent to commit genocide.' However, even under the ICJ's exacting standard, several experts believe that Israel's conduct fulfils the criteria for genocide. In November last year, Israeli genocide scholar Shmuel Lederman acknowledged that the operational patterns of the Israeli Defence Forces closely mirrored the incendiary rhetoric of senior officials. Similarly, Omer Bartov, a professor at Brown University and former Israeli soldier, recently wrote in The New York Times that both official rhetoric and developments on the ground had led him to the 'inescapable conclusion' that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians. The road ahead A final verdict by the ICJ on South Africa's genocide allegations against Israel is likely to take years, as it must follow extensive hearings on jurisdiction and the merits of the case. By the time a judgment is rendered, the devastation in Gaza may already be irreversible, particularly in light of Israel's continued non-compliance with the court's binding provisional measures. As a result, the proceedings are increasingly being seen as a litmus test for the credibility of the so-called 'rules-based international order'. Within the UN framework, a strong case has emerged for suspending Israel from the UNGA, citing its persistent violations of the Charter and binding Security Council (UNSC) resolutions. Article 6 of the Charter permits the expulsion of a member state by the Assembly on the UNSC's recommendation if it consistently breaches the Charter's core principles. In 2024, the UNGA adopted a resolution calling for economic sanctions on Israel, including an arms embargo. Yet, major Western powers, including France, the U.K., Germany, and Canada, have confined their responses to muted diplomatic criticism, particularly following the collapse of the ceasefire in Gaza in March. The U.S., in particular, has continued to shield Israel from accountability by repeatedly vetoing most UNSC resolutions demanding an immediate ceasefire. In the absence of decisive multilateral action, one can only hope that President Donald Trump may once again intervene and nudge Mr. Netanyahu to agree to a renewed ceasefire and bring an end to the ongoing bloodshed.
LeMonde
22-06-2025
- Politics
- LeMonde
Historian Vincent Duclert: 'Focusing on whether genocide is taking place in Gaza is counterproductive'
As a genocide specialist, I am often asked whether genocide is taking place in Gaza. Faced with the same question during his interview on French network TF1 on Tuesday, May 13, President Emmanuel Macron said it was for historians to say, and mentioned my work on the Armenian genocide and my report from the commission that investigated France's role in the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda. Why is such precedence given to historians on an issue that is, first and foremost, a matter of law? The dual identification of genocide and the crime it defines was the work of Polish law expert Raphael Lemkin, a former prosecutor in Warsaw whose family was exterminated by the Nazis. He narrowly escaped the Holocaust and managed to take refuge in the United States. There, in 1943, he completed the book that defines the crime of genocide through the study of the fate of Jews in Axis-occupied Europe. He also drew on knowledge of the extermination of Armenians by the Unionist Young Turks in the Ottoman Empire. To reach this definition that matched the scale of genocidal enterprise, Lemkin worked as a historian. The concept of genocide as defined by international justice in 1945 thus established a link with the earlier history of the Armenian genocide. There is a mutual and often decisive contribution between historians and law experts. Several historians, including Israelis, and law experts have concluded that a genocide has been committed by the State of Israel. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) warned on January 26, 2024, of a "real and imminent risk of irreparable harm" under the charge of genocide. The International Criminal Court (ICC), meanwhile, has since November 21, 2024, been prosecuting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas commander Mohammed Deif (now dead) for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
eNCA
05-06-2025
- Politics
- eNCA
What is genocide and is it happening in Gaza?
Rights groups, lawyers and some governments are describing the Gaza war as "genocide" and calling for a ceasefire but Israel, created in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews, vehemently rejects the explosive term. Israel says it is seeking to wipe out Gaza's Islamist rulers and free its hostages still held in the occupied Palestinian coastal strip since the Hamas militant attack in Israel on October 7, 2023. But Israel's devastating war on Gaza -- largely populated by descendants of Palestinian refugees who were expelled from or fled what became Israeli land in 1948 -- has killed tens of thousands of civilians and sparked growing global outrage. The accusation against Israel of genocide has been made with increasing force from quarters ranging from "Schindler's List" star Ralph Fiennes to Amnesty International and some Israeli historians. What does the legal term really mean and who can decide whether it applies? What is 'genocide'? The word genocide -- derived from the Greek word "genos", for race or tribe, and "cide", from the Latin for "to kill" -- was coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin. Lemkin, a Polish Jew who had fled to the United States, used it to describe the crimes committed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. It was used for the first time within a legal framework by an international military tribunal at Nuremberg to try Nazi leaders for their crimes in 1945. However, those accused were eventually convicted on charges of crimes against humanity. It has been recognised within international law since 1948 and the advent of the UN Genocide Convention. That text defines genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". These five acts include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Regardless of the definition, the qualification of "genocide" has been hugely sensitive over the decades. What is happening in Gaza? Israel's military offensive on Gaza since October 2023 has killed 54,677 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the occupied Palestinian territory. The United Nations has said the territory's entire population of more than two million people is at risk of famine, even if Israel said last month it was partially easing the complete blockade on aid it imposed on Gaza on March 2. Despite international calls for an end to the war, a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas remains elusive. The latest war started after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Of the 251 hostages seized, 55 remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead. Who speaks of 'genocide' in Gaza? In December 2023, South Africa brought a case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations' highest judicial organ, alleging that Israel's Gaza offensive breached the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Israel denies the accusation. In rulings in January, March and May 2024, the ICJ told Israel to do everything possible to "prevent" acts of genocide during its military operations in Gaza, including by providing urgently needed humanitarian aid to prevent famine. While no court has so far ruled the ongoing conflict is a genocide, human rights groups and international law experts -- including several who are Israeli -- have used the term to describe it. Amnesty International has accused Israel of carrying out a "live-streamed genocide" in Gaza, while Human Rights Watch has alleged it is responsible for "acts of genocide". A UN committee in November found Israel's warfare in Gaza was "consistent with the characteristics of genocide". And a UN investigation concluded in March that Israel carried out "genocidal acts" in Gaza through the destruction of the strip's main IVF clinic and other reproductive healthcare facilities. Omer Bartov, an Israeli scholar of the Holocaust, wrote in August last year that "Israel was engaged in systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal actions". Fellow Israeli historians Amos Goldberg and Daniel Blatman in January co-wrote an article in which they said: "Israel is indeed committing genocide in Gaza." Western governments have largely refrained from using the word, with France's President Emmanuel Macron saying it was not up to a "political leader to use to term but up to historians to do so when the time comes". But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has used it, while Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused Israel of "premeditated genocide". What does Israel say? Israel alleges it is exercising its right to security and "self defence", an argument echoed by its staunch ally the United States. Israel has dismissed accusations of genocide as "blatant lies" and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the UN Human Rights Council of being "an antisemitic, corrupt, terror-supporting and irrelevant body". He has said UN experts should instead focus on "crimes against humanity and the war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organisation in the worst massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust", referring to October 7. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in November issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Israel's war in Gaza -- including starvation as a method of warfare. It also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the October 7 attack, but the case against him was dropped in February after confirmation Israel had killed him. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan also initially sought warrants against Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, but dropped those applications after their deaths in Israeli attacks. Who decides and when? Thijs Bouwknegt, a genocide expert, said the Israeli policy in Gaza seemed to be "designed to make a civilian population either perish or leave" but a court would have to decide if it was genocide. "It bears the hallmarks of it but we still have to wait and see whether it actually was," said the historian, who has conducted research for the ICC and observed trials over genocide in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia. In the case of Rwanda, in which the United Nations said extremist Hutus killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, it took a decade for the International Criminal Tribunal to conclude genocide had happened. It was not until 2007 that the ICJ recognised as genocide the murder by Bosnian Serb forces of almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 during the Bosnian war. "The threshold for genocide is nearly impossible to meet," Bouwknegt explained. "You have to prove that there was an intent and that there was the only possible explanation for what happened." Has there been intent? French-Israeli lawyer Omer Shatz said "there is no doubt that war crimes, crimes against humanity are being committed" in Gaza. But the international law expert agreed intent was more difficult to prove. That is why, after the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Gallant, he filed a report with the court in December arguing they were among eight Israeli officials responsible for "incitement to genocide in Gaza". "If incitement is established, that establishes intent," he told AFP. His 170-page report lists such alleged incitements, including Gallant at the start of the war saying Israel was fighting "human animals" in Gaza and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urging "total extermination" in the Palestinian territory. It cites President Isaac Herzog failing to differentiate between Palestinian militants and civilians when he spoke of "an entire nation out there that is responsible" for the October 7 attack. Mathilde Philip-Gay, an international law expert, said it was ultimately up to a judge to decide on whether the genocide label applied. But, she warned: "International law cannot stop a war." "The judiciary will intervene after the war. The qualification (of genocide) is very important for victims but it will come later," she said. What now? The 1948 Genocide Convention says signatories can call on UN organs "to take such action... for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide". But while it implies they should act to stop any such crime from occurring, it does not detail how. Activists have called for an arms embargo and sanctions against Israel. The European Union last month ordered a review of its cooperation deal with Israel and Britain halted trade talks with the government. But the United States and Germany, two major weapons suppliers, are not likely to want to review their relationship with Israel.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What is genocide and is it happening in Gaza?
Rights groups, lawyers and some governments are describing the Gaza war as "genocide" and calling for a ceasefire but Israel, created in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews, vehemently rejects the explosive term. Israel says it is seeking to wipe out Gaza's Islamist rulers and free its hostages still held in the occupied Palestinian coastal strip since the Hamas militant attack in Israel on October 7, 2023. But Israel's devastating war on Gaza -- largely populated by descendants of Palestinian refugees who were expelled from or fled what became Israeli land in 1948 -- has killed tens of thousands of civilians and sparked growing global outrage. The accusation against Israel of genocide has been made with increasing force from quarters ranging from "Schindler's List" star Ralph Fiennes to Amnesty International and some Israeli historians. What does the legal term really mean and who can decide whether it applies? What is 'genocide'? The word genocide -- derived from the Greek word "genos", for race or tribe, and "cide", from the Latin for "to kill" -- was coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin. Lemkin, a Polish Jew who had fled to the United States, used it to describe the crimes committed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. It was used for the first time within a legal framework by an international military tribunal at Nuremberg to try Nazi leaders for their crimes in 1945. However, those accused were eventually convicted on charges of crimes against humanity. It has been recognised within international law since 1948 and the advent of the UN Genocide Convention. That text defines genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". These five acts include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Regardless of the definition, the qualification of "genocide" has been hugely sensitive over the decades. What is happening in Gaza? Israel's military offensive on Gaza since October 2023 has killed 54,677 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the occupied Palestinian territory. The United Nations has said the territory's entire population of more than two million people is at risk of famine, even if Israel said last month it was partially easing the complete blockade on aid it imposed on Gaza on March 2. Despite international calls for an end to the war, a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas remains elusive. The latest war started after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Of the 251 hostages seized, 55 remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead. Who speaks of 'genocide' in Gaza? In December 2023, South Africa brought a case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations' highest judicial organ, alleging that Israel's Gaza offensive breached the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Israel denies the accusation. In rulings in January, March and May 2024, the ICJ told Israel to do everything possible to "prevent" acts of genocide during its military operations in Gaza, including by providing urgently needed humanitarian aid to prevent famine. While no court has so far ruled the ongoing conflict is a genocide, human rights groups and international law experts -- including several who are Israeli -- have used the term to describe it. Amnesty International has accused Israel of carrying out a "live-streamed genocide" in Gaza, while Human Rights Watch has alleged it is responsible for "acts of genocide". A UN committee in November found Israel's warfare in Gaza was "consistent with the characteristics of genocide". And a UN investigation concluded in March that Israel carried out "genocidal acts" in Gaza through the destruction of the strip's main IVF clinic and other reproductive healthcare facilities. Omer Bartov, an Israeli scholar of the Holocaust, wrote in August last year that "Israel was engaged in systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal actions". Fellow Israeli historians Amos Goldberg and Daniel Blatman in January co-wrote an article in which they said: "Israel is indeed committing genocide in Gaza." Western governments have largely refrained from using the word, with France's President Emmanuel Macron saying it was not up to a "political leader to use to term but up to historians to do so when the time comes". But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has used it, while Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused Israel of "premeditated genocide". What does Israel say? Israel alleges it is exercising its right to security and "self defence", an argument echoed by its staunch ally the United States. Israel has dismissed accusations of genocide as "blatant lies" and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the UN Human Rights Council of being "an antisemitic, corrupt, terror-supporting and irrelevant body". He has said UN experts should instead focus on "crimes against humanity and the war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organisation in the worst massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust", referring to October 7. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in November issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Israel's war in Gaza -- including starvation as a method of warfare. It also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the October 7 attack, but the case against him was dropped in February after confirmation Israel had killed him. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan also initially sought warrants against Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, but dropped those applications after their deaths in Israeli attacks. Who decides and when? Thijs Bouwknegt, a genocide expert, said the Israeli policy in Gaza seemed to be "designed to make a civilian population either perish or leave" but a court would have to decide if it was genocide. "It bears the hallmarks of it but we still have to wait and see whether it actually was," said the historian, who has conducted research for the ICC and observed trials over genocide in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia. In the case of Rwanda, in which the United Nations said extremist Hutus killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, it took a decade for the International Criminal Tribunal to conclude genocide had happened. It was not until 2007 that the ICJ recognised as genocide the murder by Bosnian Serb forces of almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 during the Bosnian war. "The threshold for genocide is nearly impossible to meet," Bouwknegt explained. "You have to prove that there was an intent and that there was the only possible explanation for what happened." Has there been intent? French-Israeli lawyer Omer Shatz said "there is no doubt that war crimes, crimes against humanity are being committed" in Gaza. But the international law expert agreed intent was more difficult to prove. That is why, after the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Gallant, he filed a report with the court in December arguing they were among eight Israeli officials responsible for "incitement to genocide in Gaza". "If incitement is established, that establishes intent," he told AFP. His 170-page report lists such alleged incitements, including Gallant at the start of the war saying Israel was fighting "human animals" in Gaza and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urging "total extermination" in the Palestinian territory. It cites President Isaac Herzog failing to differentiate between Palestinian militants and civilians when he spoke of "an entire nation out there that is responsible" for the October 7 attack. Mathilde Philip-Gay, an international law expert, said it was ultimately up to a judge to decide on whether the genocide label applied. But, she warned: "International law cannot stop a war." "The judiciary will intervene after the war. The qualification (of genocide) is very important for victims but it will come later," she said. What now? The 1948 Genocide Convention says signatories can call on UN organs "to take such action... for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide". But while it implies they should act to stop any such crime from occurring, it does not detail how. Activists have called for an arms embargo and sanctions against Israel. The European Union last month ordered a review of its cooperation deal with Israel and Britain halted trade talks with the government. But the United States and Germany, two major weapons suppliers, are not likely to want to review their relationship with Israel. cf-cl-ah/sjw/giv
